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Tori appeared on The Saturday Early Show on CBS on Saturday, March 8, 2003. Tori performed Taxi Ride, Wednesday and Pancake (although there were many times when the performances were cut off) and was also interviewed. I want to thank the many many people who emailed me with details about this show, which I missed. A special thank you goes to Amy (Captivating Acorn), Stephenia Robinson, Kristy and Melanie for sending me transcripts of Tori's interview, and to Stephenia Robinson for sending the screen shots you see below. At the very bottom of this page you will also find more commentaty from Toriphiles and an article about Tori that posted to the Saturday Early Show web site.

Photos/Screen Shots

Transcript

Tori performed Taxi Ride, Wednesday and Pancake and right before the show went for a break a couple times they showed a shot of a building with a banner that said The Saturday Early Show and played clips of I Can't See New York. Tori made her appearance three-quarters of the way into the show and was on again at the end.

We see a shot of Tori with the band in a corner called "The Second Cup Cafe" and Tori performs a few lines of Pancake and then the host Tracey, introduces her.

Tracey - Tori Amos was one of the youngest people ever to study piano at the prestigious Peabody conservatory in Baltimore at age five. [shows clipsof Tori as she's speaking] She went on to forge her own path in pop and rock & roll. Along the way she sold millions of albums and created one of the most loyal fanbases in music. Tori rises above the crowd of female singer/songwriters with lyrics that come from a candid, sometimes brutal perspective. Her newest album was written in reaction to the events after 9/11. It is called Scarlet's Walk. [show picture of her album]

Tori Amos, welcome to Second Cup Cafe.

Tori - Hi, how are you?

Tracey - Welcome back I should say.

Tori - Thank you.

Tracey - You were our first musical guest after 9/11 and you were on the road at the time writing songs for this album.

Tori - Yes.

Tracey - Tell us about this album.

Tori - Um, this is a woman's road trip across a country, trying to find out what she believes in and trying to find her relationship with the country that she loves and questioning whether our leaders are protecting the soul of the country that we love or not, and that is what she is discovering.

Tracey - And what's the reaction been so far from your fans?

Tori - I've never seen so many people start questioning their relationship with this country and taking a part, there is an activism that is waking up and stirring like I've never seen since 1968.

Tracey - Fascinating. I want to look at the video uh for Scarlet's Walk.[The ASF Video] We, we have a piece of it, and it is [a] very unique video. My girlfriends and I have been trying to figure out what does it mean?? Are they not whole and they're made whole at the end? Explain it to me. [they talk as the ASF clip is shown, it is the clip where Tori hops onto the moving skateboard]

Tori - Well, because this song is A Sorta Fairytale, Sangi wanted to make a fairytale video, but we can't all be Cinderella, so...

Tracey - Okay...so a head on a leg...certainly not Cinderella...is that?

Tori - No...no, certainly not Cinderella. But uh, she has a better shoe than Cinderella, it is a Sergio Ross thing.

Tracey - Oh, yeah [laughs] that is a very nice shoe. Now that's Adrian Brody, right? The Oscar nominated actor from The Pianist?

Tori - Yes, yes.

Tracey - How did he end up in the video?

Tori - Well, we needed a leading man and he seemed to love the song, so it was so fun, he was good fun.

Tracey - That's great. Tell us about the first song you're going to sing for us, Taxi Ride.

Tori - This is Taxi Ride. This is um written for one of my good friends, Kevyn Aucoin, who is no longer with us, the great...

Tracey - [interrupts Tori] the make-up artist, who recently died?

Tori - Yeah.

Tracey - Alright. Very special to you?

Tori - Okay.

Tracey - We'll let you take it away. Ladies and gentlemen, Tori Amos.

(((Tori performs Taxi Ride with the band. Similarly to her performance on Regis & Kelly, she only has the rhodes and her wurlitzer and the band was playing in the background, quieter than usual for all of the songs. Tori is standing the whole time. She finishes the song beautifully, giving the crowd a little smile and a slight bow. Tracey comes over to her clapping and Tori stretches her arms across the rhodes and wurlizter and Tracey holds her hands as she talks to her.)))

Tracey - Just beautiful, I, I get chills. Your voice is just so beautiful. People have compared you to Sylvia Plath. The Sylvia Plath of Rock.

Tori - [smiles at the crowd and the band] Oh boy!

Tracey - You take that as a compliment?

Tori - Well, shes one of my favourites. Big influence.

Tracey - How much does poetry influence your music?

Tori - Well, a lot, visual arts though honestly have the biggest, um I guess lightbulb [does lightbulb actions with her hands] for me. Well, we could talk about hundreds and hundreds of painters or photographers, I have hundreds of books and I surround the piano with the paintings or photographs and I tear them out of books and that's how I'll, I'll show Mattie and John...

Tracey - [cuts Tori off] I'm sorry, I'm sorry [grabbing Tori's hands] I have to cut you off. We'll be coming right back. We'll be right back with the Saturday Early Show and more of Tori Amos.

(after the break)

Tori - [amused look on her face] Great television! really odd animals. [?] We should try to 'cord on telly, maybe some relationships would go better, less divorces.

Tracey - They're doing a lot of that here actually. Another song, Wednesday, you're going to play for us?

Tori - Yes, Wednesday. Happy little diddy.

Tracey - Alright ladies and gentlemen, Tori Amos.

(Tori plays most of Wednesday but they cut her off just before she sings "Thumbellina size 10 on a Wednesday," and go to commercial.)

At the end of the show, Tori is back to perform Pancake. She performs Pancake as the credits come on, most of the time she is visible and after the credits they let her finish the song. As Tori sang "On a Benzodiazapene" she grabbed the microphone and shook it. Overall, an amazing tv performance.

Additional Toriphile Comments

From Matthew:

i don't know if you know this, but there were several of us there who got to stand behind the cameras and watch the performance. it was amazing! the people from cbs were so nice to us, and extremely accomadating. there seemed to be some confusion with what tori said about television being a strange animal. the reason was, the host cut tori off to go to commercial, and immediately came back within seconds saying they were back from the break. she caught tori completely off guard and that is when she said television was a strange animal, and then went on to talk about marriages ending in divorce.†

while on breaks, i was close enough to hear tori turning to jon telling him about a tantrum tash threw. tori seemed to be in great spirits, considering how early it was, and how late the night previous was for her. she left immediately after the performance of pancake. waving and telling us thank you. i was hoping to meet her again, but it didn't happen. she smiled and waved several times though.

Online Article

Gary sent me the following Tori article that was placed on The Saturday Early Show web site.

Second Cup Café: Tori Amos
NEW YORK, March 8, 2003

(CBS) Talented musicians are able to bring an audience into their world with mere words and a little music. Tori Amos is no different - she tells a story with every song.

Amos visited The Saturday Early Show's Second Cup Café with some new stories to tell from her album "Scarlet's Walk."

Before Amos was known as "Tori," she was Myra Ellen Amos from North Carolina. She was born in 1963 to a Methodist minister and a homemaker. Her musical talent was evident from a young age.

She began playing piano at age 2, and at 4, she was singing and performing in the church choir. Amos received an invitation to study piano at the prestigious Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore when she was 5, only to be expelled at the age of 11 because her calling, she says, was free-form rock music.

As a teen-ager, Amos wrote and performed her own material in local clubs. In 1980, she released her first single under her real name, Ellen Amos. It was "Baltimore"/"Walking With You" on the MEA label, named after her own initials. She later moved to Los Angeles to pursue her dreams.

Atlantic Records liked what they heard and in 1987, signed the then 24-year-old singer. Her first album was released with her hard-rock band, "Y Kan't Tori Read." The album did not do well.

Amos was disappointed, but she wasn't through. She recorded her first solo album, "Little Earthquakes," in 1992. The album was an international success. It sold more than two million copies worldwide, becoming the first of several successful albums.

In 1994, Amos released her second full-length album, "Under the Pink," and in 1996, her third, "Boys for Pele." Amos contributed a couple tracks to the "Great Expectations" soundtrack in 1998 . Her fourth full-length album, "Songs From the Choirgirl Hotel," was released in 1998. Many of the songs on the album were inspired by Amos's miscarriage .

The next year, Amos released "To Venus And Back," pairing a disc of studio tracks with a disc of live concert recordings . "Strange Little Girls," in which she performed material exclusively written by men, was released in 2001 and delivers songs from a female point of view.